By Scott Etkin
Upper West Side Community Board 7’s Housing & Land Use Committee voted Wednesday night to formalize their recommendation that Extell Development should be required to include affordable housing in its building plans for the area that was ABC’s office and broadcasting campus, on West 66th and 67th streets, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.
The vote, with 14 members in favor, none opposed, and one abstention, came on a resolution asking the Department of City Planning to change zoning rules for the area.
The committee’s resolution called for new zoning that would require Extell to include affordable housing as part of the new construction, with a target of 20% of the site’s floor area allocated to below-market-rate housing (not 20% of the total units).
The full community board is expected to consider the resolution on May 6th.
Currently, the area in question is not covered by the same zoning codes as the surrounding neighborhood, due to an exemption – allowing more flexibility in the land use – that was made decades ago to attract ABC to the Upper West Side in the first place.
Now that ABC is moving its headquarters downtown and the property is in the hands of a private developer, the CB7 committee is trying to persuade the Department of City Planning (DCP) to change the zoning to enforce inclusion of at least some affordable housing at the site.
The committee noted during the meeting that its members decided on language in the resolution that favors the maximization of affordable housing, as opposed to recommending zoning that would prohibit a supertall building.
Extell is the developer behind 50 West 66th Street, the 775-foot luxury residential building that overcame legal opposition to become the tallest on the UWS. Extell has purchased the air rights from two nearby residential buildings, 50 West 67th Street and 40 West 67th Street, indicating that it would again maximize the size of the new construction on the site.
City Councilmember Gale Brewer spoke at the committee meeting about conversations she’s had with Extell founder and chairman Gary Barnett. “I’ve had interactions with him for 30 years,” said Brewer. “The issue is, he always wants tall, he always wants condo, and he always hates affordable.”
Brewer, who supports a zoning change that would require Extell to include affordable housing, said that she has been instructed by the city planning office to try to strike a deal with Barnett on this project. “Any affordable [housing] in his mind would be a separate building […] and be run by a nonprofit,” she said.
A representative from DCP was not in attendance, and the board’s committee members said they have not been informed about what zoning changes, if any, the agency is planning to make for the site.
CB7’s resolutions offer recommendations to DCP, but ultimately any final decisions would be made by the agency. At various points in the meeting, it was noted that CB7 currently doesn’t have much leverage to influence the new construction, in part because supertall buildings with no affordable units would be “as of right,” meaning that they comply with the existing zoning rules due to the exemption made for ABC.
Also, this site does not require a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which is a public review of land use applications.
The board committee estimates that a new tower on this site could be as tall as 1,200 feet. For comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet.
A handful of local residents provided their opinions about the building site. They offered mixed views about whether the developer should be allowed to build as large a building as possible, and what effect this would have on the neighborhood and Central Park.
The resolution, linked HERE, is a draft that is pending some minor additional text amendments. A video recording of the full meeting can be found HERE, with the ABC discussion starting at the 30-minute mark.
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Before we start building additonal housing, whether affordable or not, I suggest we upgrade our infrastructure , , , Sanitation is unable to keep up with the garbage; trains are overcrowded; crime is high; etc. Before we start adding more residents and add to the overcrowding, lets upgrade our infrastructure, utilites, and services!
prevent super tall bldg in this neighborhood
lack of space and infrastructure
convert existing bldg to affordable housing
Classic NIMBY move – we need more housing but first let’s do XYZ…. Guess what, infrastructure can always be better but there’s plenty of capacity on this site for more homes
We need more housing but it will overburden infrastructure and will change the character of the neighborhood……If it were up to some of our neighbors, there would be no building at all.
I believe that we need more housing units at pretty much all levels. There is not enough public housing, “affordable” housing (whatever that means) and market rate housing.
If Extell put a garage at the site would that be fine?
Would opponents of a garage be NIMBY?
ABSOLUTELY!`
A new residential high rise will have a huge and negative impact on the M66.
Obviously impact during construction.
And once up, will result in more vehicles on the street (service, delivery, uber) and more crowded buses.
Zoning should not have permitted this type of building on a crosstown bus route, narrow street.
Indeed. Just look at East 68th Street — the crosstown bus runs East there, while, for several years, street construction has permitted only one lane of traffic. If we permit the same conditions to apply on West 67th Street, we will traverse the route faster by walking.
Not to mention that it is a Central Park transverse so there will always be lots of cars. It’s going to be a mess.
What a joke. A developer lays out a lot of money after careful analysis and these Communist Democrats try to change the game after a major financial investment is made.
“major financial investment” simply means speculation here.
Capitalism works. Affordable housing means you have the money to afford to live there. Who wants to pay market rate and live next to people who may not have made good live choices, and they get the same benefits as people who can afford to live in a luxury apartment.
capitalism works sometimes; often it doesn’t. OPOD apparently is not aware of what economists call a “market failure.” Affordable housing in NYC is a notorious market failure (and of course “Affordable housing” doesn’t mean what OPOD claims it does.) health care for seniors, children, and low income people is another market failure, which is why we have govt programs like Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, and Obamacare. Of course, this is an expensive mish-mash: we should just have a form of universal healthcare, as do all other OECD countries.
OPOD clearly should be living in a gated community. The upper West Side is not one. We benefit from being mixed income and mixed race, thought sadly we have trended away from both in the last 30 years.
“made good”, like the bankrupt Trump and the welfared Wall Street?
What an odious remark!
Right, who wants to live next to people who made poor life choices like deciding to become teachers, firefighters, social workers, lab technicians, etc., and need affordable housing because they are not paid Wall Street wages?
If that was the case, then no one would argue.
But it is not how it works out.
Really, you’ve never talked to nurse, or lab tech, or NYC teacher?
This is already one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the country. Why are we so insistent on cramming even more people into it?
Very simply, because the density is what makes this a great neighborhood and more density will make it even better. Density means customers for local businesses, more money for shared public amenities, active and interesting urban streetscapes.
yes exactly. Katherine. Overbuilding and excessive people are big concerns. Already
the UWS is jammed!
Why do you believe anyone (let alone the proverbial “we”), other than Extell, is insisting on cramming even more people into it? And for them, it’s not some dogmatic principled position, it’s a simple business decision – more floors, more profits.
Ban tall buildings outright if you wish. (They’ve proven quite adept at circumventing other zoning height measures). “Tariff” them 100%, 200%, 300% on the price they paid for the site. Maybe they’ll think twice. Purchase the site with taxpayer funds and “idle” it at 4 stories to maintain the QoL in the area – if you can justify the net benefit to us.
All political/voting decisions and choices, which have their own (often unintended) consequences.
This critique misses the point. The project will bring in major tax revenue and jobs—key to funding services and affordable housing citywide. Who cares if the affordable units are in a separate building? That model works and still gets much-needed housing built. Extell is playing by the rules, and if the city wants more affordability, it should offer incentives, not grandstand. Symbolic gestures from a board with no leverage won’t move the needle. Let’s focus on results, not optics.
Maximize profits on this space (within reason – obviously don’t build a 200 story tower) and use that money to build affordable housing in less expensive areas. This is the most efficient use of resources. Tax the expensive apartments to the full extent of the law (and then some) so that the revenue can be used to help those who need it – no tax-exemptions or any of that.
And no, this is not NIMBY. This is Economics 101.
Let them build a super tall luxury high rise with some affordable units.
The impact of this whole project on the neighborhood seems dire.
There is no infrastructure to support the amount people that would be moving into the area once the project is complete. The traffic is already unbearable, the garbage is disgusting, the buses and trains are overloaded.
In addition, what happens in the interim. With the defection of the whole ABC campus, stores will loose support and may struggle to stay open, causing even more empty stores. The buildings are empty. Are we going to live in a ghost/construction zone for the next umpteen years, while they figure out what to build and then build it?
Your comment makes no sense. You say it is too crowded and densely populated, then you say all the buildings and stores are vacant. This is why we need a building there.
We need the buildings there to be occupied, not new bigger ones that we don’t have the infrastructure to service and that will make the area a deserted construction zone for the next ten years.
wrong
If CB7 wants to create truly affordable housing they would push to eliminate rent regulation.
All these crazy schemes to force developers to put aside “affordable housing” units are causing far more harm than good.
Am I the only one who remembers the enormous collective gasp – from CB7 members and the general public – that went up in the audience when Extell revealed its plans for the two residential buildings at Broadway and 99th Street? They claimed (as developers always do) that the buildings would be “contextual” with the neighborhood. To say they are anything BUT contextual would be far too kind.
Many people are unaware that Extell is the real estate arm of The Carlyle Group – three words that should scare anyone who has ever looked into who actually “owns the world” and its resources (particularly including land/real estate). That is why Extell is so unrepentently rapacious and aggressive. In a very short time, they have surpassed Vornado, Silverstein and Tishman Speyer (among others) as one of the largest real estate developers in NYC. They started by purchasing the land under Riverside South (Trump’s development) for over $1 billion. They have gone on to create over 60 major properties, including one of the five supertall residences on Billionaire’s Row.
They are NOT to be trusted. They are a steamroller, and they will lie through their teeth as they gobble up anything and everything in sight.
Given what occurred with the Broadway and 99th Street properties, I am shocked that CB7 would even give them time of day. But I am particularly shocked that they would be given any more purchase on the UWS after what they did.
Please share your proof that Extell is the real estate arm of The Carlyle Group. Your assertion is simply not true.
Extell and The Carlyle Group are separate and distinct entities with different ownership. Yes, it is true that Extell and The Carlyle Group have partnered on a number of projects in NYC but each has their own, independent real estate portfolio. You may not like either organization, but to lump them together is not factually accurate.
Also, your last sentence is problematic. Are you suggesting that a property owner be prohibited from selling their property to Extell? If so, the courts generally look unfavorably upon any restraints on a persons right to transfer property.
There was indeed hand wringing and pearl clutching when Ariel East and West was proposed. I reality they have done no harm to the neighborhood.
wait until they overbuild on the UWS!
It will destroy our neighborhood as we have known it. They should
not be allowed to build super tall in
this neighborhood.
The Upper 90’s and lower 100’s are blighted and dead with tons of vacant stores. At least these buildings brought a little life.
Great thorough reporting. Thank!